Feeding the hungry. Four missions experiences on the theme that Jesus wants us to feed the hungry and share His love

Transcription

1 1 Feeding the hungry Four missions experiences on the theme that Jesus wants us to feed the hungry and share His love Location: India Focus verse: Matthew 25:35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you took Me in Overall message: Kids can share the love of Jesus and tell His story by giving people food when they are hungry. Overview: In the slums of Mumbai, India, thousands of people are struggling to survive. They live in poverty and often go to bed without enough food to feed their families. Jesus tells us to feed the hungry. We know that when we give food to people, we have a chance to meet their greatest need by sharing Jesus with them. In Mumbai many people have never heard of Him. In fact, groups of people in India don t even have believers living among them. These people are unengaged and unreached. We can be involved in sharing Jesus with everyone in India by meeting needs and praying for more missionaries to go. Each missions experience is designed to last minutes. Use as an addition to a weekly meeting or combine for a longer missions focus. Customize these resources to fit your needs.

2 Taking it up Feeding the hungry MX 1 A 10- to 15-minute cultural experience Using tape, mark an 8-by-10 foot square. This could be done inside or outside. Decorate your slum with old cardboard and newspaper on the floor. Plan to serve plain cookies (called biscuits in India) and water. Fill a large plastic bucket with water to wash hands. From the DVD-ROM, download and print: Feeding the hungry focus verse South Asia map Discuss Ask if anyone knows what a slum is. Explain that a slum is where some of the poorest people live. They don t have running water or a bathroom. Usually the whole family lives and sleeps in one room. Ask how Jesus feels about poor people. Read Matthew 25:35-40 and discuss what Jesus means when He says, whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me. How is serving the poor like serving God? Ask for one volunteer to find India on the map. Explain that Mumbai used to be called Bombay until a few years ago when the Indian government changed the names of cities to make them sound more Indian. Then explain that while we care about the living conditions of poor people in India, we care even more about their hearts. Tell the group that 1.1 billion people live in India but only a very, very small number of people are followers of Jesus. Activity Welcome to the slums! Act as the host and invite all of the children into your home in the slums. Don t forget to take your shoes off! It s a sign of respect and keeps the house cleaner because it gets really dusty in India. Squeeze as many children as possible into the taped square. Sit on the floor, if space allows. Remind children that in Indian slums, whole families live in this small space. It includes a bed that they probably share and a kitchen made up of a small gas stove on the floor and a few dishes to make a meal. They probably don t have a bathroom inside. (MX 1 continued)

3 Taking it up Feeding the hungry MX 1 (continued) A 10- to 15-minute cultural experience Ask someone to volunteer to get the water for washing hands. Explain that water usually comes in a large tank and the whole community will gather with their buckets and wait for their turn to get water. (If desired, have children attempt to carry a small (empty!) bucket on their heads to make it even more realistic.) They have to make that water last a long time because they don t know when the water tank will come again. Let children wash their hands in the bucket. Explain that generally, people in the slums don t have access to clean water. They have to reuse whatever water they have. Explain that hospitality is very important in Indian culture. No matter how little someone has, people love to invite people into their homes and serve them a snack or meal. Share cookies, which are called biscuits in India, and water with the children. Try to only eat with your right hand because that is the hand Indians use in eating. Read the Feeding the hungry focus verse. that people in the slums of Mumbai, India, will hear about Jesus and want to follow Him. that Christians in Mumbai and throughout India will be bold to share their faith even though it is not always welcomed.

4 Taking it up Feeding the hungry MX 2 A 10- to 15-minute prayer experience Gather crayons or markers, glue and construction paper From the DVD-ROM, download and print: Faces of India photos Unknown child photo Recap (optional) People in the slums of India have many needs. They need food, water and shelter. But their greatest need is for Jesus. Many people in India have never heard of Jesus. Divide the Faces of India photos among kids. Keep the Unknown child photo for yourself. One at a time, ask one of the children to hold up their photo. for the children in the pictures to have their physical needs met (food, clean water, shelter) and to have the opportunity to hear and respond to Jesus. Share that India is home to a lot of people but some of these people have never heard of Jesus and have no believers living among them. Some of them live in places that are very hard to get to. These groups of people are called unengaged, unreached people. Hold up the Unknown child photo. This photo represents an unengaged, unreached child. We don t know what she looks like because no one has met her yet. God knows her and wants her to know about Him. Ask God to send Christians to tell all the people in India about Him. Activity ing for children Help others know about the children of India by making simple posters to display. Attach each photo to construction paper. Write a sentence prayer on each poster. Display the posters in the hallway so that adults can pray also.

5 Giving it up Feeding the hungry MX 3 A 10- to 15-minute giving experience Bring a bowl of cooked rice to display. From the DVD-ROM, prepare to show the Welcome to the slums video. This will play from a DVD player or a computer. Recap (optional) People in the slums of India have many needs. One of their needs is for food. Their greatest need, however, is for Jesus. Activity Give to feed the hungry Show Welcome to the slums video. Ask kids what they learned about slums from the video. Show the bowl of rice. Explain that people in India eat a lot of rice. It s a very important part of their diet. Some children in the slums eat rice and daal (a gravy made of lentils) every day. Ask how they would feel if that bowl of rice was all they had to eat today. Tell children that families in the slums need about 16 rupees to pay for their food each day. This is equivalent to about 30 cents. Most families in the slums live on less than $1 per day. As a class, vote on how many days your class would be willing to feed a family in India ($1/day). Can you raise $30? $60? Ask children to bring an offering next week that your class can give to a Christian organization that not only fights hunger but shares the Good News of Jesus Christ with the people. One suggestion is the World Hunger Offering (imb.org/worldhungerdonations). One hundred percent of gifts given through IMB for world hunger are used for that purpose. that God will take your offering and use it to provide for the children in India. Ask that children will know that Jesus provided for their needs and see Him as their Savior.

6 Taking it personally Feeding the hungry MX 4 A 10- to 15-minute serving experience Find a soup kitchen or shelter in your area that accepts donations. Ask your church staff for recommendations on food pantries or a particular family in the community that is in need. Make plans to help them. From the DVD-ROM, prepare to show the music video Your hands, your heart, your voice. This will play from a DVD player or a computer. Recap (optional) We ve been talking about the people who live in the slums of India. They are poor and hungry. Jesus commands us to feed the hungry, but He also wants us to tell them how they can have eternal life with Him. DVD Your hands, your heart, your voice Show the Your hands, your heart, your voice video from the DVD-ROM. Activity Food drive Share that even if you can t travel to India, you can be God s hands in your part of the world. People around you need help just like the children of the slums of India. Plan a food drive for one of the organizations that you found in your neighborhood or nearby city. Break children into groups to brainstorm ways to promote the food drive. Help the children lead in gathering food items. If possible, plan for them to go with you to deliver them. Children can also include a card letting recipients know they are praying for them and love them like Jesus does. Get the whole church involved! Read Galatians 2:10 and pray that God will help you remember the poor those in India and around you. that they will understand their deepest need is for salvation through Jesus.

7 Going further Feeding the hungry Ideas for mission projects based on this theme If your church is already praying for an unengaged, unreached people group through PRAYERthreads or if you have recently embraced a people group through Embrace the ends of the Earth, download the PRAYERthreads KIDS journal from kompray.imb.org and help your children work through that journal weekly. Look for Indian people groups in your area at Select a people group in your area and plan a time to reach out to them. If there is an area of town where large concentrations of Indian people live, visit that area. You might start with an Indian restaurant. Have children from your church explain that they ve been learning about India and would like to meet people from there. Invite the children that you meet to Vacation Bible School, Sunday School or some other outreach through your church. Make collections for a food pantry or homeless shelter a regular part of your children s ministry. Talk to your church leadership about the many ways children can be involved in feeding the hungry in your community. One idea is an item a month collection. One month collect cans of tuna, the next month collect peanut butter, etc God can use your church to take the Gospel to the unengaged, unreached people groups of the world. Learn more about UUPGs and how to get involved at Have other great ideas? Find us on Facebook and let us hear from you.